"Forging the Realms" Articles by Ed Greenwood

Forging the RealmsThe Friendly MonsterBy Ed Greenwood
How and where and when did the Forgotten Realms start? What's at the heart of Ed Greenwood's creation, and how does the Grand Master of the Realms use his own world when he runs D&D adventures for the players in his campaign? "Forging the Forgotten Realms" is a weekly feature wherein Ed answers all those questions and more.

Many D&D campaigns end up using a play element that seldom gets talked about, almost as if it's a guilty little secret: "the Friendly Monster," a beast (sometimes small and weird, like a faerie dragon or a smart-mouthed flying skull, but more often so large and formidable that novice PCs will be reluctant to attack it) that aids PCs, often with timely advice, and even befriends them.

FtR: "Making the Trains Run on Time" by Ed Greenwood

Forging the RealmsMaking the Trains Run on TimeBy Ed Greenwood

"How and where and when did the Forgotten Realms start? What's at the heart of Ed Greenwood's creation, and how does the Grand Master of the Realms use his own world when he runs D&D adventures for the players in his campaign? "Forging the Forgotten Realms" is a weekly feature wherein Ed answers all those questions and more."

As a young boy, I was both a bookworm and an avid model railroader -- largely of the armchair variety, which meant I didn't have a layout most of the time (though my dad did construct a massive 4-by-8-foot plywood "bed" that could be winched up to the basement ceiling and back down again). So I spent a lot of time devouring the latest issues of model railroading magazines, and doodling track plans—that is, how the tracks would be arranged, when I got around to properly setting up my layout (something I still haven't done). My dad advised me to make sure I included lots of sidings for switching and what he called "realistic operation," because "you'll quickly get tired of just running trains around and around a loop." He feared I would soon lose interest because my railroad would be like what bored teenagers do in a small rural town, driving their cars around without really going anywhere. As the saying goes, "You can only drive up and down Main Street so many times."

FtR: "The Mushroom Man" by Ed Greenwood

Forging the Realms
The Mushroom ManBy Ed Greenwood

How and where and when did the Forgotten Realms start? What's at the heart of Ed Greenwood's creation, and how does the Grand Master of the Realms use his own world when he runs D&D adventures for the players in his campaign? "Forging the Forgotten Realms" is a weekly feature wherein Ed answers all those questions and more.

"The Mushroom Man Crashed through the Window"

"There the heroes were, tensely hiding behind tapestries and in the shadowy corners of the darkened library, trying not to breathe loudly."

"They'd crept into the castle in the proverbial dead of night, using magic to reach the battlements and painstaking stealth to venture from those windswept heights to here, where they were supposed to meet the spy who would pass them the documents."

FtR: "Quelzard, Patron of Adventurers" by Ed Greenwood

Forging the Realms"Quelzard, Patron of Adventurers"By Ed Greenwood

How and where and when did the Forgotten Realms start? What's at the heart of Ed Greenwood's creation, and how does the Grand Master of the Realms use his own world when he runs D&D adventures for the players in his campaign? "Forging the Forgotten Realms" is a weekly feature wherein Ed answers all those questions and more.

"Many heroic adventurers of the Realms have had their tales told, one way or another, including both player characters and famous NPCs. Alongside these personages have always been sidekicks and henchmen and hangers-on who stand in the shadows of such greatness, and get overlooked."

"One of these unsung figures is one of a type—that type being a quite numerous sort of "patron of adventurers" overlooked thus far in published Realmslore, though his sort has been around in my world since before the Dungeons & Dragons game existed."

FtR: "When Stuff Happens, What's a DM to Do?" by Ed Greenwood

How and where and when did the Forgotten Realms start? What's at the heart of Ed Greenwood's creation, and how does the Grand Master of the Realms use his own world when he runs D&D adventures for the players in his campaign? "Forging the Forgotten Realms" is a weekly feature wherein Ed answers all those questions and more.

"In a tournament roleplaying situation, there's an unwritten but understood agreement that a prepared, preordained adventure must be undertaken. The player characters have a mission to accomplish or a problem to solve, in a limited time. It's not the occasion for wandering about casually, exploring the world in any and every direction with an eye out for things that look interesting and that could be investigated later. There won't be any 'later.'"

FtR: "When Stuff Happens, Leaving a Legacy" by Ed Greenwood

How and where and when did the Forgotten Realms start? What's at the heart of Ed Greenwood's creation, and how does the Grand Master of the Realms use his own world when he runs D&D adventures for the players in his campaign? "Forging the Forgotten Realms" is a weekly feature wherein Ed answers all those questions and more.

"Some folks try to fight the reality that -- like everyone else -- they're getting older, and will sooner or later die. These people might race to squeeze in more revelry or accumulate more achievements, or might deal with the reality by firmly putting all thoughts of mortality out of their minds until their failing bodies force attention to such matters.

Others start to think of what legacy they might leave, what mark they can make in the world that will outlive them.

In the Realms or any other ongoing D&D campaign world, player characters can seek to establish legacies, too, and some players do think about such things."

FtR: "Lord Crakehall" by Ed Greenwood

Forging the Realms"Lord Crakehall"By Ed Greenwood

How and where and when did the Forgotten Realms start? What's at the heart of Ed Greenwood's creation, and how does the Grand Master of the Realms use his own world when he runs D&D adventures for the players in his campaign? "Forging the Forgotten Realms" is a weekly feature wherein Ed answers all those questions and more.

"We all love to hiss at arrogant, eccentric, flamboyant, and easy-to-hate nobles. They're juicy foes and targets for characters in the Realms, especially in Waterdeep, Cormyr, and Sembia.

Whether it's sneering at Lord Clarglustus Rowanmantle of Cormyr, with his habit of collecting nubile girls, talking blue parrots, pungent wheels of cheese from "the far Shaar," and kenku-carved hedgehogs and mushrooms from the seedier markets of Saerloon, or haughty Lady Faelra Umbrusk of Waterdeep, with her penchant for bathing in ostrich milk, her love of horsewhipping tardy servants, her fascination with gambling on the outcomes of bloody tavern brawls in Dock Ward, and her belief that the patterns of moonlight reflected through gems left on her dressing table are guidance from the gods as to which visiting envoy or merchant she should next seduce, it's easy to enjoy the overblown antics of nobility who act outrageously because they can. These are people so rich that the gods owe them money, or so seemingly insane that they are role models to raving lunatics.

Because Realms fiction and play so often show us the "bad" side of nobles, however, or the larger-than-life personae they present to the world, we often don't see the other sides of their lives—especially the activities that allow kings, commoners, and everyone else to tolerate their continued existence.